Saco man pleads not guilty in 1994 Mass. killing

WORCESTER, Mass. — A second man has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the 1994 disappearance of a Worcester man whose body has never been found.

Forty-nine-year-old John Fredette of Saco, Maine, was ordered held without bail after his arraignment Wednesday in Worcester Superior Court.

Elias Samia of Worcester pleaded not guilty to murder last week.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports prosecutor Daniel Bennett said in court Wednesday that 36-year-old Kevin Harkins was fatally shot in Samia’s car after the men left a bar. The prosecutor said Harkins’ blood was seen on the defendants when Millbury police pulled the car over about 3 a.m. Feb. 15, 1994. Bennett said Harkins was killed after he refused to lie for Fredette in a drug case.